Film & Media Arts: Student & Faculty Work

Alum Finishes Bollywood Feature Film

Alum Ishu Krishna completed his feature film “Arrange to Settle.” Krishna wrote the script in partial fulfillment of his Masters degree. The film was covered in the Style section of the Washington Post. Read more

Adept or Inept

In Professor Menke-Fish's production class students are encouraged to create original pieces. A production from this year, a series called "Adept or Inept" made it front and center on NBC Washington's home page. Watch videos

Prof Quoted in BBC Article

Professor Larry Engel was recently quoted in a BBC News online magazine article about Presidential candidate Rick Perry's campaign ad where he calls President Obama "President Zero." Read more

"That's the Ticket"

A video segment produced for for Prof. Maggie Stogner's Film and Video Production II class will air around the country on PBS in the coming week. "That's the Ticket," a story about a 102-year old woman who has worked at the same dance hall in Iowa for the last 79 years, was written, directed, produced and edited by part-time graduate student Don Fish, who works professionally as a video editor; the segment was shot by AU grad student Helenah Swedburg, and Lauren Ann Doria helped out with stock footage research. Watch video

Hip Hop: Furious Force of Rhymes

Larry Dortch, MA student in Producing for Film and Video and Smithsonian Channel producer, has produced his first video that's made it on the network's website. It's a Q&A with Joshua Litle director of Hip Hop: Furious Force of Rhymes.  Watch clip

Class's Web Series Makes Debut on NBC Washington Website

Professors Claudia Myers and Kylos Brannon produced a new web series, "Stage Fright" that's now up on the NBC Washington website. The show is a ten-part ghost comedy web series that was developed, written, shot and edited as a collaboration between students and faculty in the SOC course "Creating Webisodes."  Watch video

Prof's Exhibition Profiled in Documentary Magazine

Professor Maggie Stogner's Indiana Jones Exhibition was profiled in an article in Documentary Magazine.  Read more

Former Prof Highlight in Art Journal

Former Film professor Ann Zelle, who ran the photo concentration in SOC, was highlighted in the summer edition of the College Art Association's Art Journal. Her work includes photographs documenting the project ART & SOUL which was the 1968-69 West Side Chicago art center developed through a collaboration between the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Conservative Vice Lords. Inc. Read more

Reinventing the Museum Experience in the Digital Age

Professor Maggie Stogner uses new media technologies to create an immersive storytelling experience.
Read more

Adjunct Produces Videos for CLINIC National Pro Bono Project

Adjunct professor Kimberley Williams independently produced two videos (here and here) for a non-profit called CLINIC with both videos being featured on their website. Currently her documentary film that she's been working on for five years, "Broken Hearts and Butterflies" was recently selected as a finalist out of over 200 applications for a possible finishing grant. Read more

Student Creates Multicultural Portraits 

"What Are You?" is a multicultural portrait photo gallery project created by student Rani Robelus. View gallery

Adjunct's Photography Exhibition Showing at the Studio Gallery in DC

Former MA student, long-time staff member and now current adjunct Iwan Bagus' new photography exhibit is now showing at the Studio Gallery in DC. The show was recently reviewed favorably by the Washington City Paper and will be open from March 2 to March 26, 2011. See more of Iwan's work.

Alum's Film Racking Up the Awards

Film alum Michael Pollack's film Death of a Nation first winning festival was at the Best Shorts Competition 2011.  Since then, the film has steadily been gaining more awards.  Most recently, the film won "Best Short Film" at Indie Fest 2011.  Check out the film's site to what other awards it has won. Read more

 SOC Students Find Success In Festival Circuit

"Waiting for Oil" the 30:00 documentary that JP Eason produced for his thesis and that Brad Allgood DP'd in Louisiana during the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster last June,  is an official selection in the Gasparilla International Film Festival to be held March 24-27, 2011. You can watch the trailer here. They are currently seeking out broadcast options for the film, and plan on entering it into the Student Oscars. They are waiting to hear back from several other film fests as well.

"Saving the Seaflower Conch" Shows at BLUE Ocean Film Festival

Brad Allgood's thesis film "Saving the Seaflower Conch" was an honorable mention in the 2010 BLUE Ocean Film Festival and an official selection in the Hamptons Wildlife and Conservation Film Festival, as well as "Power to the People" another short documentary Allgood produced about renewable energy in developing countries. "Power to the People" can be found here.

Prof's Film Featured in Politico, Wins Award, Acquired by Showtime

"Below the Beltway," a feature film produced by Professor Claudia Myers -- and on which nearly a dozen SOC students worked -- has been featured in Politico. The film also won the audience award at the Newport Beach Film Festival.  In addition, the political comedy starring Tate Donovan, Noah Wyle, Sarah Clarke, Annie Wershing and Spencer Garrett is one of the 25 Audience Award winning films from the top film festivals nominated for the Independent Film Project (IFP).  IFP in New York will award one the 25 films with a national Festival Genius Award.  Part of the process is an on-line vote to narrow the 25 films down to 5 finalists.  Vote here or watch "Below the Beltway" 's trailer  Recently, the film was acquired by cable channel Showtime.  The film will premier on the The Movie Channel December 4 at 5:50pm and is scheduled to air 20-30 time on the Showtime family of channels over the next four months.  Visit Showtime for additional screening times.

Fall 2010 TV Studio Production Class Produces "DC Free" for NBC4

Experience the best of D.C. for free. Students of the Intro to Studio Television class explore free events throughout the district for their weekly show, "D.C. Free." The show will air on NBC4's Daily Connection program as well as on NBCWashington.com.  Watch the video

Profs Docs Will Be Featured in Indiana Jones Traveling Exhibit

Professor Maggie Burnette Stogner, Film and Media Arts, will be producing, directing and writing four short documentaries for an upcoming international traveling exhibition, "Indiana Jones and the Adventure of Archaeology".  It will open at the Montreal Science Center in Canada on April 28, 2011.  Watch trailer and get more information

EcoViews Wins Student Emmy

The prestigious student Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in Student (Non-News) Production went to students in Professor Sandy Cannon-Brown’s Environmental and Wildlife Filmmaking class for their documentary, EcoViews: Life on the Chesapeake Bay. The award also acknowledged the outstanding work of several students in Brigid Maher’s and Catherine Eunice’s motion graphics classes for the interstitials selected for the program. Read more

Third Alum Wins Student Oscar

This is the third consecutive year that a former student from the School of Communication has won a Student Academy Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 

Kim Spurlock, SOC/MA ’97 won for her narrative film, Down in Number 5, a story about a terminally ill coal miner who seeks refuge for his developmentally disabled son. The previous Oscar winners were Lauren DeAngelis, MA '08, for her film A Place to Land, her thesis documentary that follows the cross-country journey of abused or abandoned parrots, once in captivity, and Laura Waters Hinson, MFA '07, for As We Forgive, a documentary about reconciliation efforts in Rwanda.

SOC student, Joe Bohannon, Director of Cinematography and Sound Technician for the film A Place to Land, was interviewed by NBC about the documentary.